


Holiday Romance

by yourebrilliant



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Implicit Sexual Situations, Romance, Travel, post—hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 21:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourebrilliant/pseuds/yourebrilliant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by "Sand in My Shoes" by Dido.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holiday Romance

Pushing open the door to her quiet, cold flat, Hermione regarded the mess she had left behind with a heavy heart. Abandoning her case at the living room door, she wandered aimlessly through the flat, arriving at her bedroom in short order. She knew, as she surveyed the clothes flung across her bed, that she should neatly fold the discarded items and return them to the “Summer Holiday” boxes they had come from but, somehow, to do so felt as if it would be an acknowledgement of the end of her holiday. An acknowledgement she wasn’t quite ready to make.

Instead, she lethargically flung the clothes in a heap in the corner of the room and flopped down onto the bed. For a few moments she did nothing, thought of nothing, just stared mindlessly at the ceiling, before it occurred to her to change her watch back to UK time. Sighing, she lifted her arm up, angling the watch face until she could see it in the fading sunlight. Could it really only be five pm? Four, once she adjusted for the time difference. Could it truly be just five hours ago that she had lain in the arms of a beautiful, wonderful man and refused to let herself tell him how she felt? Tell him the truth; that in just ten days she had somehow, against all that she perceived to be right and true, managed to fall in love with Draco Malfoy. She wondered if he knew anyway. There had been something in the way his embrace had been slightly tighter than the other mornings they had woken up together, something in his blasé attitude that had seemed forced, but Hermione had “once burned, twice shy” down to an art. She needed more than wondering.

Unbidden, images of their time together came to her mind, a montage of stolen moments, from their first meeting when they had been forced to dine together due to a lack of tables in the hotel restaurant, to the number of accidental meetings in the days that followed, and the later memories of gentle kisses, lively conversation and evening wanderings. And of the nights that followed.

Suddenly restless, she flung herself from her bed and paced the flat. Finding herself in the kitchen, she peered hopefully into her fridge to be greeted with the empty shelves of a woman who actually cleared out the contents before she went on holiday.

‘Right,’ she muttered to herself, ‘have to go out, then.’

 

Thirty minutes later, she arrived at the ready meals section of her local supermarket, only to be confronted with the sight of a man she’d hoped not to see ever again. ‘Draco?’ she gasped, so shocked to see him in a Muggle supermarket that she forgot she desperately didn’t want to speak to him. He froze at the sound of her voice, one hand still extended towards the “Lasagne for One”.

‘Hermione?’ he asked, turning towards her with an equally shocked face.

‘What...what are you doing here?’ she managed, her feet moving towards him of their own volition.

He shrugged. ‘The wizarding world hasn’t quite managed “ready meals” yet,’ he admitted.

She smiled shyly. ‘How are you?’ she asked. ‘Have you been home yet?’

‘Just to drop off my case. How are you?’

About to say “fine”, Hermione suddenly noticed a look in his eye; sadness and longing and felt deep inside, a conviction that she’d been right, that he did feel the same as she did. ‘ _I’ve still got sand in my shoes_ ,’ she said instead, ‘ _and I can’t shake the thought of you. I should get on, forget you_.’ She took a deep breath, ‘ _But why would I want to_? I love you,’ she whispered, coming to a halt in front of him. ‘I can’t help it,’ she said, her face turned up to him, her gaze fixed desperately on the hopeful light in his pewter eyes. ‘ _I know we said “Goodbye”, anything else would be confused, but I want to see you again_.’

Suddenly out of words, Hermione found she could do nothing but stare at him, her hands clenched at her sides to stop her from reaching out to him. As she watched, her heart in her mouth, a soft smile blossomed on his lips and he closed the distance between them, cupping her cheek in one hand and leaning close, his forehead resting against hers, his gentle breaths puffing against her cheeks. ‘Thank. God,’ he whispered fervently.

‘What?’ she gasped.

‘I love you too,’ he said quietly. ‘I love you,’ he whispered, kissing one of her eyelids. ‘I love you,’ the other eyelid. ‘I love you,’ he whispered, pressing his lips against hers and wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

Laughing joyfully, she reached up and wound her arms around his neck. ‘Want to share a ready meal?’ she asked, smiling.

‘And so much more,’ he said, smiling down at her and kissing her again.

**Author's Note:**

> Words in Italics are lyrics taken from Sand In My Shoes by Dido.


End file.
